OMG, we saw the Queen of England

After several agonisingly long flights and a 20 hour layover in Manila, we finally land in London on the evening of Halloween. This is horrible news for me, because I love Halloween more than any holiday and yet I am so dead tired that all we do is go immediately to bed. Well, immediately after our 90 minute Uber ride to Brighton. My lovely English friend Becka has been nice enough to let us stay in a flat her grandparents own, but we did not realise how far Brighton was until yesterday when Callum’s dad, born and raised in London, asked where we were staying. It was too late to make other arrangements, plus the flat ends up being lovely and so does Brighton in general. Just English train transport is shockingly expensive to the city, which is a bit sucky.

We are struggling with jet lag quite badly and end up awake at 4am, walking around in search of food. We eat and have an early morning nap before catching the train into London for a bit of an explore, all the classic tourist stops. But the real treat of the day is when we get lost near a big building (which we later learn is Buckingham Palace– oops) and happen to see the Queen from her carriage.

A policeman tells us that she’s been meeting with the President of Columbia and that’s why there’s been a parade organised this morning, with hundreds of horses and English soldier people and marching bands (but also on horses, so not really marching). A spontaneous highlight of our first day in London!

I'm Brooke, a former Seattle native turned Sydney local with a great love for international travel, tall mountains, and painfully spicy foods. Brooke Around Town is where I chronicle my (mis)adventures and share travel photos―I'm writing my own story and I want it to be a good one! When I'm not frolicking around the world, I'm slaving away towards a PhD in biomechanics, hanging out with Cal & our furry cat son, Henri, or daydreaming about my next big adventure!